Numbers

I'm not done running yet this year, so I don't have that stat.  But I am done working.

I did 3,662 surgeries this year.  That's 1,873 spays, 1,703 neuters and 86 other surgeries.  Not bad!

Merry Christmas Grandma

My grandma went to Heaven this fall.  But I thought making this post seemed like the right thing to do.  I may still print a book too, to keep the collection going. Love you Grandma.

Just some cool vet stuff.

These are some pretty good sized bladder stones from a labrador.

This a yorkie whose eyeball was popped out.  I was able to get it back in and closed the lids for support.  Waiting on follow up to know if it worked.

Kittens, Crafts, and other things

Merry (now Emmy) was adopted by one of my technicians this week.  She will be very pampered and her now mom is so happy to have her.

 We had a christmas craft day a few weeks ago.  We made snowmen and Kristen make a santa from bottles.  They turned out pretty cute and it was a fun day.

And here is random adorable picture of Lyric. 

Poor baby

Tehani had a small benign mass removed from her elbow today. She has been very dramatic about it so far while recovering in my office. But I'm not really surprised. She was pretty dramatic after her spay and also has a meltdown if she stubs her toe or something in the yard. She wanted me to post these for sympathy. 

Last race

This weekend Cheri, Grace, Lindsay and company and I did what will probably be our last race for the year. We hit the St. Louis Hot Chocolate 15K. The good news is that Lindsay and I are so competitive  we pushed each other to a dual PR of 1:20:39. Which is a way better time than I thought I was capable of!  Our challenge now is to be able do it again in 8 years when Lindsay is the age I am now! The bad news is I strained my Achilles which could jeopardize my 1000 mile year. I have 53 to go. So I am resting and icing for a few days and hoping it will heal quickly.

Notice my magical rainbow unicorn leggings. They made all the difference!

Then we joined Elaine and Melanie in Herman for the wine and cheese event to celebrate Lindsay's upcoming nursing school graduation. A fun, but exhausting weekend!

Who wants a Merry Christmas?

This little sweet pea is Merry. She was a "feral" cat that was brought in to work to be spayed. The caretakers were not really committed to caring for her so they let me take her to find a good home. She is being treated for all kinds of parasites and an eye infection but should be ready for her new home soon!

Devil's Den Trail Run

This weekend Cheri and I went to Arkansas for a trail run.  We stayed at a super cute hotel built at an old mill complete with evening snacks and free cookies!  We got there in time to do a little shopping-I picked up a few presents for the pets-and still had time to relax a bit before bed.

The race morning was cool and cloudy but not crazy cold.  The first half of the race was pretty rough.  It had a long uphill on rough and rocky terrain followed by a long downhill on the same terrain. The second half  was much nicer, a more "runnable" style of trail.  It was only supposed to be 5 miles but somewhere in the fine print it actually said 5-6 miles.  They may as well have called it 6 because it was far closer to 6 than 5!  But it helped me get a bit closer to my 1000 mile goal.  Only 75 more!

Then we headed home and Jerry and I spend the evening catching up on our TV and then sleeping in this cool, dreary morning. Welcome to winter.

No surprise

Sunday Legend and I attended the local UKC nosework trial to compete in the Advanced containers class.  She knocked out her title by qualifying in both rounds and earning a first and second place with a total time for both rounds of 15.27 seconds.  Yep, we invested a half day for 15.27 seconds.  But she loved it.

Normally I would say this accomplishment comes as no surprise but since boxes have tripped us up a bit in our last few NACSW triasl it was not necessarily a given, but did turn out to be a good confidence boost.

Ten years together

Once upon a time I picked out the name Legend for my next dog. It was supposed to be a male. But the little red dog on the rescue webpage was a female. And I couldn't get her out of my head. So I bought a pink leash, drove to Nebraska, and called her Legend anyway. Ten years,  56 titles, one crazy journey and a million memories later, I wouldn't change a thing. Happy 11th birthday Legend-if I could stop time now, I wouldn't think twice.

Sundae Sunday

Here are few fun pics of Sundae that I took on Sunday.

I took Legend tracking yesterday to see how it went, since we have not done any in over a year I bet.  I'm trying to decide if I should buckle down and put the work in to try and get her TD or not.  I want to, it's just the time commitment, especially over the winter.  But she did well so I think I will give it a shot.  Especially since there will probably be a time lapse before our next NW3 trial.  Otherwise, no other excitement!

NW3 try number 4

Thursday we drove to Davenport for another shot at getting our second NW3 pass. We started with vehicles, which was a pretty straightforward 3 vehicles end to end search. I was a little nervous as we had failed vehicles on our two most recent trials. But she rocked it, found two hides and cleared the rest of the area nicely. I felt good about it and we were off to a good start. 

Next was interiors. Usually a strong spot for us. She worked the three areas well and I felt as good as Icould about them. There is always some second guessing!

Exteriors was next and by this time the temps had dropped 20 degrees and winds were gusting over 20 MPH. Plus the search area was pretty "busy" so I was worried about this search. She found one hide but checked a lot of areas with interest so I worked until the 30 second warning and then called it quits. I was pretty dubious about our success here but you never know!

Last up was containers. She found one hide and then we had a false alert on a box where some odor has apparently been collecting.  I was super bummed to get all the way to the end of the day and then blow it. Especially when we found out all out other searches had been successful! Yay! But on the plus side, we found all hides, improved our search times, handled the wind well and overall had our best outing since our first try. 

Plus we got a pronounced in exteriors and earned our NW3 element titles in interiors and exteriors. 

Absent

So it's been about 3 weeks since I've posted. I looked at my calendar to see what i have been doing and apparently it was just working. And since I'm still on track to run 1000 miles this year I just go home at night and run. 

We've had no races and no dog trials and really no excitement. But summer has made a full recovery, Tehani is doing well and everyone else is fine. We had a bonfire this weekend with a few friends. And this upcoming weekend we are off to Iowa for an NW3 trial. So hopefully we will have news to report!

40

My parents were married 40 years this weekend.  My sister planned a very lovely party that everyone enjoyed.  We also surprised them with a cruse to Alaska-we worked very hard to keep it a secret for a very long time and I think it was a success!  I even wrote a cute poem with clues that we make them read out loud.

Here is the booklet I put together

Summer continues

Not the season, although we have had some unseasonable warm weather lately, but the rabbit.  Before we headed out on vacation Summer got pretty sick, lethargic and not eating.  Sedated exam and radiographs were not that helpful so we started her on a bunch of meds and supportive care.  She had some ups and downs but then had a really bad day right before we left.  I was about ready to put her down when she started eating a little more.  Over the course of out trip our very patient house-sitter medicated her and babied her until she was feeling good enough to be a huge brat about her meds.  Since we have returned she has continued to improve to almost normal.

I still don't know what was wrong or if it was meds or time that healed her.  And I also don't know if it will last but for now we are happy she is still bopping along.

Another big eared puppy!

We have a new foster pup!  Tehani was a stray who has been hanging out at someone's house for about a month.  Her sibling was found dead on the road not far from where she was staying.  They were probably dumped.  The family took care of her for awhile but knew they could not keep her so contacted rescue.

She looks to be about 10 months old, is super sweet and very good in her crate.  She is mostly housebroken, likes other animals and has a touch of puppy naughtiness.  She is a little timid but just needs some confidence boosting.  She will make someone a lovely dog.

Zodiac's halo

Back when we lived in Columbia we were members of a dog training group that put on a performance once a year.  Each dog was painted on the set and after they pass away a halo gets painted on the set as well.

Marcia sent me this photo of Zodiac with his halo after the set was updated this year.  I didn't realize his name was spelled wrong on set!  But now he and Oreo both have their halos and watch us from heaven.

Lake Powell Half Marathon

Saturday was the big race that inspired this whole trip.  It certainly wasn't our fastest-for a number of reasons, but it was very scenic.  We stopped to take some pictures-one of the reasons it was not fast. There was a lot of lakefront running and even 2 miles of actual trail running along the lake-another reason it was not so fast!

The food afterwards wasn't very good but the medals were nice.  After some better food at the Bed and Breakfast we stayed at and a shower it was time to hit the road. We spent the rest of the weekend driving and finally made it back home Sunday night.  Today was back to work and back to laundry!  And in just a little while back to running.  When you have  1000 miles to do you only get one day off after a big race!

Antelope Canyon

We also did this yesterday.  It was really one of the coolest things we have seen.  These are considered "slot" canyons because they are so narrow.  It was very surreal looking, you can't really believe something like this was naturally created.  It looks like an abstract work of art or another planet.

See that crack in the ground?  That's the canyon.  We came out right near where this picture was taken.  Hard to believe all that was underground!